Elon bar host to home brewing contest

ELON – Through the collaboration of an Elon bar and a well-known regional brewery, one lucky home brewer will have his American Pale Ale on tap in Alamance and Guilford counties come January.

On Saturday, The Fat Frogg bar and grill in Elon hosted a home brewer’s event, announcing Patrick Collins, of Greensboro, as winner of the first “Fat Frogg and Natty Greene’s American Pale Ale Brew Off.”

“I’ve been brewing for about four years now,” said Collins. And though he’s won second- and third-place in other contests, Saturday’s contest was the first he won.

Collins said he not only hopes to win when he enters contests, but“it’s a great way to learn to become a better brewer.” He said, “You get a lot of great feedback from judges.”

Anyone was eligible to enter the competition. Peter Ustach, co-owner of Fat Frogg’s, said there were about 25 entries.

“Some applicants entered multiple beers,” Ustach said.

For example, East of Elon Home Brewing Cooperative, submitted a few of its members’ brews for judging. Ian Baltutis, founder of the cooperative, Justin Lee, and Victor Heorst – all of Burlington – submitted “Twin Eagles,” “Fire & Brimstone,” and “Acrimonious Amarillo Ale,” respectively.

Baltutis said about two months ago, “We had a marathon brew day,” where the group’s members all worked together to create each of the three contest entries. Afterwards, Baltutis said, “We did some of the fine tuning and the fermentation work.”

Applicants weren’t just from Elon, Burlington or Mebane. Ustach said home brewers from High Point to Hillsborough participated in the competition.

He said most of the participants began submitting their entries last Monday, and Ustach took them all to Natty Greene’s in Greensboro on Thursday for judging.

In addition to Ustach, Natty Greene’s owners, Chris Lester and Kayne Fisher, Director of Brewing Operations Sebastian Nesson Wolfrum, Head Brewer Scott Christoffel, and Brewery Representative Justin Whitaker tasted the beers and narrowed the candidates down to the top three.

“There’s an official style called the BJCP,” Whitaker said, explaining the entries were judged based on the Beer Judge Certification Program’s guidelines for American Pale Ales. “We judged it on One: appearance; Two: taste; Three: aroma, and Four was the overall finish of it,” he said.

Collins looks forward to enjoying his “Halfway Hause” brew at his local Natty Greene’s brewpub early next year. “I go there quite a bit,” he said, adding Natty Greene’s told him they’ll try to make the beer available at his other favorite bars in Greensboro.

“It’s going to be pretty cool to walk into a bar and order my own beer,” Collins said.

“The beer will start getting brewed in January,” said Ustach. Natty Greene’s in Greensboro will brew 30 half-barrels of “Halfway Hause” for sale in brewpubs in Greensboro, Elon and probably Burlington, Whitaker said.

He explained half-barrels are the standard keg size, and Collins will meet with Christoffel in Greensboro when they begin brewing the 1,500 liters of Collins’ concoction.

“We’re going to … quadruple the recipe,” said Whitaker. He added that Collins will get to meet with Natty Greene’s graphic designer to help create a label for his brew’s tap handle, which will accompany the beer to various locations in January.

Though the competition’s winner is from the same city as one of Natty Greene’s locations, Whitaker said the brewing company’s intent was to reach out to several community’s home brewers.

“We kind of like to branch off in different places,” Whitaker said, adding that Natty Greene’s will probably continue to sponsor community brew-offs in the future. For now, though, the brewing company has to keep the competitions limited, since producing the winning brew “takes up one of our regular brewing cycles.”

Whitaker said Natty Greene’s brewpubs in Greensboro and Raleigh will serve “Halfway Hause,” as will Fat Frogg and Pandora’s Pies in Elon. He said Piedmont Ale House in Burlington may also have the beer on draft, and he’ll be looking for more local bars interested in serving the winning brew.

“It’s kind of unusual for a contest to offer brewing (the winning beer) and putting it on tap as a prize,” said Baltutis, adding this was the second contest East of Elon members had entered. He said the group has been meeting every other Sunday for the past three years, and the contest concept is new to them.

However, Baltutis said East of Elon will continue entering contests like Natty Greene’s in hopes the group can get some of its brews – like its heritage recipe for Lithuanian beer – produced and enjoyed locally.